No Strings Attached (film)
No Strings Attached is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed and co-produced by Ivan Reitman. Starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, the film is about two friends who decide to make a pact to have a "no strings attached" relationship, without falling in love with each other. The film was released in the United States on January 21, 2011.
No Strings Attached
- Mike Samonek
- Elizabeth Meriwether
- Jeffrey Clifford
- Joe Medjuck
- Ivan Reitman
- January 11, 2011 (Westwood, Los Angeles)
- January 21, 2011 (United States)
108 minutes[3]
United States
English
$25 million[4]
$149.2 million[5]
Plot[edit]
After first meeting at a summer camp together with their parents, Emma Kurtzman and Adam Franklin run into each other a few times as independent people but never keep in touch. Emma is a doctor in Los Angeles, and Adam is a production assistant for a musical television show.
Soon, Adam finds out that his father Alvin, the well-known star of a former hit television comedy series, has begun a romance with his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa. Devastated, a drunken Adam calls all his female contacts to hook up. The next morning, he wakes up on Emma's couch, with her friends and colleagues teasing and telling him that he was crying and passed out naked on the couch. She leads him to her room to find his pants, and they have sex.
They have sex again at Adam's house. Before Emma leaves, they agree to engage in a "no strings attached" relationship, where they just have sex. Soon, Adam finds himself getting jealous of Emma's co-worker Sam, and being an emotional person, he doubles his romantic attempts towards her. She feels awkward and thus ends their arrangement, only to end up missing him. She drunkenly crashes at his place, and they sleep together again.
On Adam's birthday, his father tells him he wishes to have children with Vanessa. Disgusted, Adam walks out, and Emma defends him. He asks her for one single date on Valentine's Day, and it seems perfect till she awkwardly tells him she will not engage in an emotional relationship. He says he can't continue without progressing, so they agree to not see each other.
Six weeks later, at her sister's wedding rehearsal dinner, Emma realizes she wants to be with Adam. She calls, saying that she misses him, but he shuts her down. She drives over to his place, only to see Adam and his colleague Lucy, who she thinks is his girlfriend, going inside together. She drives away, heartbroken and without any clue on what to do.
Later that same night, Adam and Lucy are awkwardly starting to get intimate when Vanessa calls to tell him his father is in the hospital. Adam rushes to the hospital, only to see Emma there as well, as her colleague Shira had informed her.
As Emma confesses her feelings to Adam, he asks her to pursue their relationship again, and she agrees. They have breakfast together and arrive in time for her sister's wedding. Alvin makes a recovery, breaks up with Vanessa and begins a relationship with Lucy. Adam and Emma happily continue their "strings attached" relationship.
Production[edit]
No Strings Attached is directed by Ivan Reitman based on a screenplay by Elizabeth Meriwether titled Friends with Benefits. The title was changed to avoid confusion with a different film with a similar premise that opened on July 22, 2011. The Paramount Pictures film was first announced in March 2010 as an untitled project. Actors Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman were cast in the lead roles, and Paramount anticipated a release date of January 7, 2011.[6] Reitman said of casual sex, "I noticed from my own kids that with this generation in particular, young people find it easier to have a sexual relationship than an emotional one. That is how the sexes deal with each other today."[7] Principal photography began in May 2010.[8] By November 2010, the film was titled No Strings Attached with a new release date of January 21, 2011.[7]
Though the timing was coincidental, Portman welcomed the chance to portray a dissimilar character to her role in Black Swan.[9]